Our Montessori Classroom: The Nature Table

One of the most frequented areas of our Montessori homeschool classroom is the nature table. I’m trying to keep it simple. Less is more with little ones. Our nature table is really just a low shelf. She loves to collect things outdoors and I’m trying to encourage her exploration. Our nature table holds a magnifying glass, a wooden tray, a plastic bin with a lid that is divided into small cubes, as well as some stacked plastic drawers to the left of the table for sorting her treasures.

To the right, is a wire basket for our nature books. It currently holds:

And my favorite part – the birdwatching wall. I stumbled onto these vintage Singer Bird Art Cards and they are perfect for this space. We have a feeder just outside the window and throughout the day she frequently pauses from work and play to watch the comings and goings. The cards make it easy for her to identify our guests on her own.

7 responses to “Our Montessori Classroom: The Nature Table”

Those bird cards are awesome! That is a great divided container for her to sort her treasures in, that that. New here so I am not sure how old your child is so with that in mind I say this – identification books are great but you should consider too adding some story books or non-fiction books to the shelf too. Carl R. Sams has some amazing books that might be a big hit. Some good bird ones like “In the Nest” or “Feathers for Lunch” or “Bird Talk” might be fun too. Nature related story books are a huge hit at our house.

So nice to meet you, Abbie. Yes, we always keep a collection of story books in the nature book basket as well. They revolve depending on what she’s currently interested in…usually from the library. Thank you for the bird book recommendations!

I absolutely LOVE your nature table and how it is organized. Such a wonderful idea. Thanks for sharing. We just participated in a nature swap with people across the world. We should receive something soon and I can’t wait to see what everyone has sent! 🙂